<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>You Shine by kaifectionery_fest</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762448">You Shine</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaifectionery_fest/pseuds/kaifectionery_fest'>kaifectionery_fest</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>EXO (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Fantasy, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Jongin’s Birthday Week 2021, Self-Esteem Issues, alternative universe, attempted self-harm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-16 00:02:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,000</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29762448</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaifectionery_fest/pseuds/kaifectionery_fest</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maskmakers do not wear masks.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Challenge #14 — We Artist Baby!</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Shine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>“Thanks as always for your service.”</p><p>Jongin looked up at and into Chanyeol’s eyes. They were shining with renewed vigour behind his tiger mask.</p><p>“Anytime,” he said.</p><p>And he meant it. Creating and restoring masks wasn’t just a job. It was his passion, his entire goal in life.</p><p>Renewing masks made by other artists was inevitable in the long run but creating a person’s mask? Forming that one mask they would likely wear in public for the rest of their life? That was the greatest honour and whoever would allow Jongin to do so had a special place in his heart. And around the winter solstice, when everyone desired their masks to be in perfect condition for the festivities, Jongin always put his own masks before any others.</p><p>Park Chanyeol was the last one this year. The festivities were already ongoing but the young soldier didn’t show any disappointment over him being this late.</p><p>“I’ll take great care of it,” he announced instead, sounding confident.</p><p>Jongin smiled, hands clasped before him as the dim, golden light of the hallway toyed with the seams of his white robes.</p><p>“You always do.”</p><p>Chanyeol nodded before pulling a box out of the bag he’d brought. It was wooden, simple-looking, and too large to contain a book.</p><p>“This is for you,” he announced simply. “As a sign of gratitude.”</p><p>“You’ve already paid,” Jongin began, but Chanyeol cut him off by gently pushing it into his hands.</p><p>“That’s what makes it a present and not pay,” he said, firm but gentle, before bidding his goodbyes.</p><p>For a moment, Jongin stood there, watching his shadow grow longer until he finally exited into the brightly lit plaza, closing the door behind him.</p><p>Then he turned to enter his atelier, closing that door, too, and shrouding himself in darkness.</p><p>The only light coming in was the faint moonlight filtering through the window in the high ceiling.</p><p>Jongin wouldn’t have it any other way.</p><p>He needed light to paint and he needed light to meet up with customers to take a <em> look </em>at them. To sit down and talk to them, bare face to bare face, to use all his senses to find the mask they were looking for.</p><p>For unsure, timid Chanyeol, it had been a tiger mask with courage resting in every stroke of orange paint.</p><p>For indecisive Junmyeon, he’d painted a white, majestic hare, granting him swiftness to aid his decision-making.</p><p>Absently, Jongin placed the box on one of the cluttered shelves before approaching the mirror at the end of his room.</p><p>There was Jongdae, too, whose whimsical nature got soothed by the independence of the cat he’d sculpted for him.</p><p>For young Sehun with his brittle health, Jongin had painted a mask resembling a snake, with shimmering, majestic scales.</p><p>For Baekhyun, who had clawed his way up from the bottom, he’d created the mask of a wolf, strong and fearless.</p><p>He slid to his knees before the mirror, robes slipping over his shoulder and pooling around him, exposing the tanned expanse of his arms.</p><p>In the mirror, he saw himself, looking pale.</p><p>He’d granted Yixing the wings of an eagle, painted a fox to lend Minseok its claws, and a sturdy dragon supporting Kyungsoo’s own strength.</p><p>All of them had been grateful, claiming that they’d never worn a mask with so much raw magic imbued into the paint.</p><p>They’d told him time and time again that he’d truly captured their essence and molded the perfect mask for them, the perfect sword and shield alike.</p><p>Jongin stared at his own, bare face.</p><p>Maskmakers didn’t wear masks. To maintain their own, true essence at all times.</p><p>As he took in his own, dull eyes and messy curls, his wide nose and too-generous lips, he was painfully aware of the truth behind this saying.</p><p>After all, he saw his own shortcomings every single day, was constantly exposing himself.</p><p>Always vulnerable, always put on the spot, with nothing to aid him.</p><p>And he was sick of it.</p><p>Not of the masks - he loved painting them, loved creating something that could support another person throughout their life.</p><p>It was his own face that he was sick of.</p><p>The distant noises of celebration filtered through the air as Jongin painted his own face, drawing clumsy, nonsensical patterns with trembling fingers, wet paint covering his dry skin. It wasn’t enough to hide him, wasn’t enough. Eventually, he dropped the brush, let it stain his robe, and reached for one of his many carving knives.</p><p>He was sick of this face of his. He was sick of everyone seeing him. He just wanted to change it, wanted to see it gone-</p><p>Just as the sharp tip touched his cheek, something crashed behind him, effectively breaking his focus.</p><p>Jongin whirled around, still panting harshly.</p><p>The box had fallen off the shelf.</p><p>How strange.</p><p>Jongin crawled over to tug it into his lap.</p><p>With shaky fingers did he lift the lid and pulled aside a piece of cloth to reveal a mask unlike any other he'd ever seen. It didn’t seem to resemble any type of known animal and was made entirely of metal, coated in gold. Countless intricate details raked themselves over the surface, making it look otherworldly. The shape of it was unusual, too, with spike-like, equally ornate protrusions. It was nothing short of beautiful.</p><p>As Jongin turned it over, he found a small piece of paper sticking to the inside of it.</p><p>There was only a single sentence written on it, with eight very familiar signatures scrawled beneath it.</p><p>
  <em> You shine like the sun. </em>
</p><p>He kept it safe on his lap as he slowly put on the mask, looking at himself in the mirror.</p><p>There was no magical paint in it, no precise spells resting in every brush stroke.</p><p>Yet there was a tear running down his cheek, followed by another, as he felt his soul being touched, cradled, <em>soothed.</em></p><p>For the first time in his life, Jongin felt nothing but peace.</p><p> </p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>